Kith and Kin
by bhut
Summary: Sequel to Flesh and Blood. How will the ARC deal with Philip Burton controlling half of it? How will Burton and others deal with the craziness that is the ARC? Read on and find out!
1. Chapter 1

**Kith & Kin I**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™._

As Abby, Connor and the rest of the ARC employees (except for those who were away for some reason or another, as Nick and Jenny were) were gathering in a lobby, their mood was uncertain. Roughly a day ago, yet another time anomaly had manifested itself – but this time it was in the House of Commons, right in the middle of a session. Admittedly, no one got hurt – well, not seriously hurt – but wheels had been set in motion, decisions made or altered, and suddenly the ARC found itself to be at least partially owned by a private entrepreneur and billionaire, one Philip Burton.

James Lester didn't like this, neither did most of the ARC senior employees, but, sadly, they did not have the right amount of political pull to overall the ministry's decision, and so, there they were, about to meet their new boss – well, co-boss, really, since Lester was still in charge of at least one half of the ARC.

"Well, it may not be too bad," Connor was telling Abby with his trademark optimism. "I mean, Prospero Enterprises are nothing if not prosperous, and, well, they're renowned for their technological breakthroughs..."

"Aha," Abby said in a neutral tone of voice. Regrettably for her, she couldn't help but suspect that at least a part of Connor's optimism was derived not from Prospero's financial prosperity, but from one of its employees, Jess Parker, who was roughly their same age and was dressed more provocatively than even the gone and unlamented Caroline Steele. "Technological breakthroughs. What sort of technological breakthroughs?"

"Um," Connor gave Abby an askance look. He _wasn't_ as smart when it came to young women than when it came to technology or dinosaurs, but he _had_ known Abby for quite a while, and currently he couldn't help but suspect that the young blonde was upset about something. Shouldn't he try to console her?

However, before Connor could make-up his mind one way or another, the two of them joined the rest of the ARC crew in the lobby, and the moment was gone.

"...And so," James Lester was continuing to talk, ignoring the fact that there were still some people absent, despite Connor and Abby being present, "our Centre now is a joint, public-private operation," a grimace briefly distorted his face, "with the private half run by Mr. Philip Burton. Despite the legal division, though, this is a joint affair, so, his employees will be working side by side with us. Everyone, say hello to – among others - Ms. Jess Parker and Mr. Matt Anderson!"

There was a smattering of uncertain applause.

"Well, that is that," Lester finished his semi-grand speech abruptly. "Everyone, back to your duties now." The ever-present Lorraine approached him suddenly from the side and thrust him a memo. "Hmm? I see..." he stopped even pretending to be interesting in the meeting and left abruptly for his office instead.

"...That was weird," Connor told Abby, but the blonde wasn't listening, but eyeing the newcomers. Sure, they didn't look threatening, but-

But Abby thoughtfully eyed the very discreet glance that Anderson had given her cousin, and she wasn't sure what to make of it, either.

"Helen!" Abby exclaimed, as they were all returning from Lester's very curt speech. "Wait up!"

"Yes?" The older woman half-turned to face her cousin. "What's up?"

"You tell me," Abby said, crossly. "That Anderson... I think he was eyeing you. You met him in your travels abroad?"

"Yes," Helen replied after a brief, but thoughtful pause. "I have."

"And?" Abby pressed on.

"It's complicated," Helen confessed, "and private."

"Well, if you want private," Abby cast a meaningful glance, "we can always go to the coffee corner..."

"I'd rather not aggravate Lester at the moment," Helen countered. "Let's go back to the animals and talk there instead."

"You'd not aggravate Lester?" Abby said, almost incredulous. "How'd that happen?"

"Eh, it's fun, but not all the time," Helen replied, dismissively, "and besides, we do need to talk-"

"Can we talk?" Matt suddenly appeared on the scene, startling Abby... the same way that Helen tended to do – by quietly sneaking up on the young blonde from behind. "I mean, is it really you?"

"Yes," Helen admitted, almost with an eye roll, "it's me. Anyways, some introductions are in order: Matt, this is Abby, a cousin of mine; Abby, this is Matt – he's from the future."

Abby and Matt exchanged looks that were almost equally confused. "Say wha-?" Abby finally spoke.

Helen exhaled. "I can explain."

"Ah, Mr. Temple, Ms. Page," Lester said with a jocularity that was completely faked, "so happy to see that you've responded so timely, eh?"

"Mr. Lester, what's wrong?" Sarah asked quietly before Connor could, thankfully. "Why's the happiness?"

"From the lack of embarrassment," Lester replied flatly. "This is Mr. Peter Conroy. Madame minister sent here him to us to deal with the scientific aspects of our studies."

Wordlessly, Connor and Sarah exchanged a glance. "Are you saying that we're fired?" Connor asked, his voice suddenly lower and more dangerous than ever.

"No!" curiously, it wasn't Lester, but Mr. Peter Conroy who replied. "You two – and your co-workers, I assume – have been dealing either with the technological aspects of the time anomalies, or the animals. I'll be heading the studies of the time anomalies themselves, I've got my degree in physics, you see?"

"I do," Sarah admitted, suddenly. "You'll be examining if the time anomalies..."

"How they fit in into our world – or if not, why not," Peter Conroy finished, almost smiling. "Why don't we go to your office and generally figure-out how we will co-operate from now on?"

"Yes, let's," Connor agreed, thoughtfully. "We should warn you – what we've got is less of an office, and more of a glorified work station."

"Consider me duly warned," Peter agreed, and the three of them left Lester's office.

"What a smooth bastard," Lester muttered in a near admiration, and then realized something. "And where's Jack?"

"So, you're Philip Burton?"

The question came from behind the man in question, startling him, slightly.

"Yes," Philip admitted, quickly regaining his composure, "it's me. That's who I am. And you are?"

"Jack, Abby's brother," the younger man easily admitted, "hello."

"Hello back," Philip responded, somewhat sourly. "Do all the people here tend to sneak up on each other?"

"Mostly; for various reasons, but mostly yes," Jack admitted. "Some don't, it's a personal option, really."

"Hmm," Philip mused, even as he stared at Jack's big and honest gaze. "Speaking of personal, am I correct in assuming that people here aren't too excited about this merger?"

"Relatively speaking, they're neutral about it all," Jack responded after some thought. "Lester's, however, is unhappy about it for some reason, maybe personal, maybe not. I'm guessing he's just indignant that you've caught us flat-footed after the dinosaur in the House of Commons' mess."

"That's unfair," Philip argued. "I've been, actually, trying to contact them for months before, but James has been unhelpful, and Mrs. Cutter even less."

"...I'm guessing that you don't mean Jenny?" Jack said after a pause. "She's the Mrs. Cutter nowadays, not Helen – she and professor have divorced each other first. The latter and Jenny married some time before and are on their honeymoon, actually. Calling Helen Mrs. Cutter is liable to backfire – badly."

"Anything else I should know about?" Philip spoke after he thought over this new development. "About James's employees, I mean?"

"Well, yes," It was Jack's turn to think it over. "And about Mr. Lester himself. Like, did you know that he was never able to defeat professor Cutter in a drinking contest?"

"A drinking contest?" Philip repeated incredulously.

"Yup," Jack nodded, cheerfully. "A drinking contest – make that several. Every time professor Cutter was able to defeat Mr. Lester, causing the latter no end of frustration. Now here comes you, another direct character, and poor Mr. Lester is threatened in his masculinity even more, pardon my crudeness."

"Hmm. You know, I've got an idea," Philip said slowly. "Thank you for your time. You've been very helpful, young man." With these words he quickly walked off, failing to notice a very peculiar grin that appeared on Jack's face.

"Oh yes, everybody – I am on a roll," the younger Maitland whispered, even as he rubbed his hands.

For several moments – as Matt and the two cousins fed the dracorex and the Columbian mammoth their greens – there was just silence, until Helen decided to break it at last.

"It all began during one of my travels," she finally spoke, more to Abby than to Matt. "I went almost one thousand years into the future, and found the humanity almost extinct due to a combination of various factors." Matt coughed, but Helen ignored him. "Anyways, that combination caught me flat-footed, unfortunately, and if wasn't for Matt's father, Gideon, I probably would've died. Since, however, I was saved, I had to repay him and recuperate as well. So, in the end, I ended up raising young Mathew here as a governess or a nanny – though I prefer the term governess out of the two. Mathew?"

"Wait a second. You raised him? But he's older than me? How old are you?" Abby spoke before Matt did.

"Very old – but very well preserved for my age," Helen said, wryly. "Let's just say that I have hit menopause some time back and leave it at that. Mathew? So, what are you doing here?"

"After Vigdis attack and you were gone, father was able to push his project through, and I, of course, was a part of it. We're here to prevent the future from coming true," Matt spoke up suddenly. "...Will you help us?"

"Us? Who's 'us'? Gideon's here?" Helen blinked, incredulously. "Guess I owe the old goat at least one last visit."

"Yes," Matt replied, slowly. "I guess you should. So," he turned to Abby, "you're her cousin?"

"Me and my younger brother, Jack," Abby classified. "I think you saw him around earlier... or not. Jack's sort of irresponsible, even I seem to be unable to make him behave for long... though Lorraine tends to try. A lot. But, that's family to you – can't live with it, can't live without it."

"Hmm," Matt said, thoughtfully. "It sounds like-"

And then a time anomaly alarm interrupted him.

"Hey, Connor, Sarah – what's all the commotion?" Danny Quinn spoke as he came to the scientists' part of the ARC. "And who's your new friend?"

"This is Mr. Peter Conroy," Connor explained helpfully. "He'll be studying the time anomalies themselves, as opposed to the means of containing them, or the animals that'll be coming through them."

"Hmm, I see," Danny nodded solemnly. "So, did Burton introduce you later, because I don't remember Lester-"

"I don't work for Mr. Burton, a great scientist that he is," Peter interrupted him, quite coldly, "I am, sir, Her Majesty's man, through and through!"

"Mr. Conroy works for the government, Danny," Sarah explained helpfully, albeit belatedly. "I'm not sure if Burton's fully aware of his presence here just yet."

"Hmm," Danny repeated thoughtfully, and then looked Peter straight in the eye. "Just what is going out there, Mr. Conroy? What's the government up to? The dinosaur in the governmental building was bad, but how does Philip Burton fits into this? Or is there something else?"

"That, Mr. Quinn, is a bit further out than your clearance can take you," Peter Conroy said firmly.

"Really?" replied Danny. "We'll see."

And then the time anomaly alarm shrieked.

"James."

"Philip," Lester muttered in irritation, as he shifted around to confront his new co-owner of the ARC (for a lack of a better word). "I don't know where Lorraine has gone off, but... is that a bottle?"

"Yes," Burton kept his own face carefully neutral. "I thought that we've gone off on the wrong foot, so maybe a little friendly drink will be in order to set things straight?" His vocal tone was specifically calibrated to piss Lester off, and he succeeded at it quite nicely.

Lester opened his mouth, closed it, looking at Burton with a greater intensity than before – and indicated to his table. "Sit down, Philip," he said, going for cordial, and not quite succeeding. "You want a friendly drink? You got it!"

...When the time anomaly alarm rang, both men were too far gone to care; when Lorraine came back, she had a nervous eruption, but that was later.

"So, as you can see, this is where time anomalies are now being detected at," Connor was explaining to Danny and Sarah. "By the way, did I sound like Yoda right now?"

"Just a bit," Sarah admitted, "a really tiny bit. Where's the time anomaly located at – Jess?"

"At the crossroads of 27th and Vine," Jess replied, just as hesitant as Sarah herself was. "Um, Sarah Page, right?"

"Yes, I'm Sarah. These two are Danny and Connor. Those two are Abby, Helen, and-"

"Matt, Matt Anderson," Matt explained helpfully. "Is everybody here?"

"Yes," conferred Becker, as he appeared from yet another corridor. "Sorry for being late. Had to do some paperwork." He blinked, as he took a good look at Jess's new team-orienting station. "That's new."

"No, not really," Connor replied, "we've been building this station for quite a while, Mr. Burton's finances and staff just gave us a boost-"

"I think, Connor, he was talking about Jess. She is new around here, arrived only this morning," Abby spoke up suddenly.

"Um," Jess said, slowly, as she tried to figure out if Abby was actually being hostile or not, "well-"

"Let's go," Danny said quickly, "Sarah-"

"I'll stay here and man the fort with Jess," Sarah said slowly. "Besides, if she's left alone, Jack might decide to prank her, or something."

"In other words, it's the same as usual," Becker said tersely. "Hopefully, though, it won't be another stegosaurus."

"That makes all of us, then," Abby said, looking nervously between Danny and Becker – lately the relations between the two of them were getting kind of tense, in no small part because of Sarah. Usually it was sort of fun, but right now... it sort of wasn't.

There was a brief pause, when everyone waited for someone else to say something, but nobody was volunteering. Therefore... everyone just packed up and left to deal with the time anomaly... except for Sarah and Jess, who stayed behind.

"What was _that_?" Jess asked a short while later, after she had given the ARC's field team the instructions how to get to the time anomaly.

"What was what?" Sarah asked the younger woman.

"That, that bit at the end-"

"Oh, that. Abby and Connor are in a relationship, sort of, and are somewhat possessive of one another," Sarah said, almost cheerfully. "Abby's just jealous for no good reason."

"She is! I mean, there is no good reason," Jess said, with an almost frantic quickness. "I'm sure that Connor is a great guy and all, though his taste in clothing could use improvement, don't get me started on the hat, but I, I don't like him like that."

"And that's good," Sarah said, almost smiling again. "Now, uh, are you seeing anyone?"

"Pardon?" Jess blinked, caught completely flat-footed. "Are you trying to be chatty with me?"

"Yes," Sarah admitted, "it _is_ nice to meet new people. We, at the ARC are a rather static though peaceful bunch; ever since Nick and Jenny got married, things have been quite quiet around here, and-"

"Jack!" Lorraine's shriek echoed throughout ARC's main lobby. "Sarah! Did you and the new girl see this barely pubescent wretch anywhere! He has done it again!"

"You need help?" Sarah called back.

"Yes! Tell the new girl to come up here as well," Lorraine added. "Burton's involved as well."

Sarah and Jess exchanged looks as they abandoned – Jess, admittedly, with some reluctance – the control station and went to help Lorraine with whatever her problem was. And when they saw what it was, they realized that Jack was indeed in trouble.

The dinosaur was massive, easily 5 meters tall, over 10 meters long, with a beak-like mouth that it used to crop leaves off the suburban trees.

"It's not from the Jurassic, that's for certain," Helen said thoughtfully, as she half-turned to face Connor. "The Cretaceous?"

"Yup," Connor nodded (he still didn't like Helen all that much), "it's an Iguanodon, an herbivorous dinosaur."

"Make that two herbivorous dinosaurs," Abby added, as the second Iguanodon – a juvenile – looked from behind the bigger beast. "So how are we going to handle them?"

Silence fell. "When we went to face the stegosaurus, we ended up in a PR nightmare because we twiddled our thumbs, and Jenny wasn't around to back us up," Becker said sourly. "How about we take an opposite approach here and charge?"

"Just an observation," Helen couldn't help but say. "These two look exhausted. We charge them – they'll probably decide to stand their ground and die, rather than flee."

"Flee? From what?" Becker said incredulously... and then a huge, three-toed foot slammed onto the ground through the time anomaly.

"The G-Rex! It's back!" Abby gasped.

The giganotosaurus, as if it had heard and realized that it had been recognized, shifted briefly its stance towards the humans and roared a challenge, before switching back to the Iguanodon mother and young.

"Connor! Do something!" Abby hissed, forgetting in the heat of the moment – the giant carnivore was rather impressive and intimidating in appearance – that she was standing next to Matt, rather than Connor. Matt, however, took no offense at the apparent confusion, but raised his taser and fired a shot.

Immediately, the giganotosaurus shuddered and toppled, as if hit in the head by a giant.

"It's the new EPDs," Matt explained helpfully to shocked Abby. "They can topple a tyrannosaurus at a full strength-"

With another roar, maybe less loud, but just as furious, the giganotosaurus got back onto its feet.

"Bad news for us, Matt," Connor said sourly, "but this dinosaur is bigger than a T-Rex, and possibly even sturdier. Maybe you should hit it again, just for luck-"

The Iguanodons bolted. Though they were smaller and shorter than the carnivore, they were built as solid as the American bison, and quite a bit bigger. The giganotosaurus, conversely, was still shaking-off the after-effects of Matt's shot. Therefore, the herbivores bowled into it and tumbled back into the time anomaly together at once.

There was a brief pause, and then Helen carefully walked over to the time anomaly, and stuck her head there before pulling it out almost immediately.

"The carnivore's dying, or will be dead soon enough. The herbivores have trampled it something nasty. Connor, you want to seal this time anomaly?" she said as she moved away from it.

Wordlessly, Connor did just that, even as he stared at Danny. However, it was Matt who asked the question: "What did you do?" he asked the ex-detective.

"Stink grenades. The stink in question is the smell of rotting meat. Animals either love it or hate it, but it distracts them all the same," Danny explained willingly. "Plus, last time – with the stegosaurus – Helen got talking about her experience with the dinosaurs in the Jurassic and she mentioned that some of the plant-eating dinosaurs stampeded if startled. So, I startled them to see if they will attack the G-Rex, and they did, basically."

"Giganotosaurus, Danny," Connor winced slightly. "When Nick heard me calling it the G-Rex the first time, he lectured me about the responsibility about the proper names in palaeontology for an hour and a half."

"And you loved it," Abby added wryly.

"Yes, I did," Connor admitted, "but if Nick decided to lecture Danny, Danny won't. So consider this a pre-emptive warning or something."

"Acknowledged," Danny nodded sombrely, before switching his attention to Matt. "And nice reflexes too, by the way."

"Thank you," Matt nodded in reply, looking only marginally happier than Becker at the current turn of the events. "Incidentally, I understand now something else-"

It was then that Abby's cell phone rang, startling everyone. "Yes?" Abby said, seemingly suspecting that she knew what was expecting her on the other side. "What did Jack do this time?"

She listened for some time, winced, and switched her phone off. "Guys, we need to get back quickly – Lorraine sounded _really_ pissed-off at Jack this time."

To Matt's relative surprise, the others exchanged knowing glances and took off back to the Centre as fast as legally possible.

When the field team returned from the field, they were met both by Sarah and Jess for a change. "Danny," Sarah exhaled sharply, "remember when Nick and Lester began their drinking competitions, and how Lorraine had to involve Jenny to snap them out of it, eventually? Well, apparently Jack told Burton about it, and the latter decided that it was a good idea to show Lester up. Only he didn't. When Lorraine found them in Lester's office, it was definitely a tie."

"Hey, don't get mad at me! I just thought it was a good idea!" Jack piped-up, peeping from behind Sarah.

"Of course you did," Abby exhaled, sounding more sad than anything. "Just as you thought about betting Rex in your card game. Come on, let's bring you to Lorraine so that we can grovel some."

"Do we have to?" Jack whined.

"Oh, yes!"

Philip Burton awoke with the worst headache he had for a long time. "What has happened? Who won?" he muttered as quietly as he could.

"Well!" Lester's assistant, Lorraine something, exploded like a Chinese firework, "just like a man! You two are a pair of real men, you know? Mr. Lester, now that Jenny Cutter isn't here... I admit I didn't truly expect you to be back-sliding so soon! At least professor Cutter has had some common sense... Mr. Burton seems to be no better than you are!"

"And what does that suppose to mean?" Burton asked somewhat huffily.

"I'm sorry?" It wasn't Lorraine who said that, but Jack, who suddenly appeared in the medical wing. "Lorraine, I really thought that it was a good idea."

"Jack," Lorraine sounded more exasperated than anything. "You remember how it was when Mr. Lester had his drinking competitions with professor Cutter, right? What made you think that that was something else but a bad idea?"

"I don't know," Jack looked innocent and regretful at the same time. "I just did?"

"Abby," Lorraine muttered to the shorter woman, "keep your no-good brother out of my sight for the next 12 or so hours, would you?"

"Done," Abby Maitland said briskly even as she led Jack out of there.

"I'm missing something here, aren't I?" Burton muttered half to Lester and half to himself.

"Yes, sir," Jess Parker snuck into the room. "The ARC functions like an extended, semi-dysfunctional family. That's why it is so efficient. You'll probably understand better once you've slept it off." She left.

"Drunks and dinosaurs – that's our motto," Lorraine muttered as she left as well.

As Burton sank back onto one of the ARC's medical wing's beds to sleep off his hangover, he couldn't help but wonder if Lester's – and his own - underlings were onto something...

_To be continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

**Kith & Kin II**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belongs to Impossible Pictures™._

When Jess arrived at the ARC the next morning, she was in for a surprise: the Centre was populated much more scarcely than before, and Captain Becker, in particular, was busy nailing some sort of a notice to the wall.

"What's up?" Jess said, a bit shyly, since her initial introduction to the Centre had been rather lukewarm, not counting Sarah.

"A press conference later today," Becker replied amiably enough, "about our merger with Burton's company."

"Oh. I don't remember there being any e-mails-"

"That's because we aren't very big on e-mails," Becker admitted. "Well, mostly Lester and Lorraine, and since they run most of the administrative duties we have to check the office's message board every once in a while. It's somewhat inconvenient, but after some misadventure with bouncing e-mail addresses... it's not so bad."

Jess blinked. "The bouncing e-mail problem can be solved relatively easy-"

"Not if you're James Lester. Or professor Cutter. Or me," Becker shrugged. "Computers _are_ important here, but paper messages... they work too."

"Very well," Jess decided to concede her point...for now. "So what about the press conference?"

"Some time ago we made a deal with the ITV – if there's any news on our front, they get first picks, and in return, they don't stick their noses into time anomalies or something like that," Becker seemed to be quite willing to change the subject as well. "Since the last big event – you know, the one with the stegosaurus – had been handled by the ministry's people instead of ours – well, they've been chomping at the bit lately, and we had to throw them a bone."

"Mmhmm," Jess said thoughtfully, as she read the memo. "Due to the press conference the staff is given a day off..."

"Control damage," Becker said, sounding not particularly happy about this Lester. "The less of a chance that somebody will pipe up with a different opinion than the official one."

"Who would do that?" Jess enquired.

"Practically everyone – myself included from time to time," Becker nailed the last notice to the wall, and turned to face Jess fully. "Well, have a nice day."

"Excuse me?" Jess blinked at the abrupt dismissal. "Aren't you leaving too?"

"No – I'm the head of the security."

"And _I_'m the head of the time anomaly watch," Jess said tartly, pointing at one of Becker's own memos, "so we'll be seeing each other for a while today yet." She paused and added in a slightly less confident voice. "So there!"

Becker just blinked.

"Now I am reasonably sure that you've had nothing to do with this, this sudden day off," Abby was telling Helen as the two women waited for Matt to pick them up, "but still, assay my fears down somewhat, please?"

"If I remember my word of the day correctly, 'to assay' means 'to examine'," Helen cheerfully replied. "I'm no Dr. Freud, but, what the Hell, spill. What are you afraid of, and are there any bananas involved?"

Abby twitched, turning briefly red. "What about assuage, then?" she asked.

"To tone something down? Very well," Helen sighed. "What do you mean?"

"Were you, or were you not behind this?" Abby repeated her question.

"Honestly? Mick Harper _has_ been bugging me about a new interview for a while, since the stegosaurus incident," Helen admitted. "Last time, when you were chastising Jack for his latest bad idea, I told Lorraine about that, and she apparently decided that a press conference with Mick and Katherine is a good idea. So... here we are."

Abby blinked. "I'm still not convinced," she began quietly, but at that moment Matt arrived in his car.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

The two women just nodded in agreement.

For the first time in quite a while, Connor Temple found himself with nothing to do, and he wasn't sure what to do with it. Usually, Nick, Abby, or anyone else was present at the scene and gave him some sort of a direction in life; without it, Connor was quite content to lie on the sofa and to read comics... only not. And the reason for that was obvious. Abby was gone.

Well, not 'gone' gone as she had been in the past, when the futuristic sea creatures called the Mer had dragged her through a time anomaly, but she was still absent. And that bothered Connor for some reason.

Okay, the reason was obvious – "I'm jealous?" Connor was busy talking to Rex as the winged reptile cheerfully chirped back in reply. "Am I jealous? I mean, Matt hasn't been here for too long, and his record here hasn't been all that great yet... so why Abby decided to go with him? And, more importantly, why has Helen whatever-her-last-name-now-is went them? To chaperone?"

In all due honesty, Connor had to admit that Helen's presence hadn't bothered him that much after all. Sure, he still didn't like her, but recently this dislike got toned down somewhat, especially since they didn't talk that much... if at all. What bothered him was Matt – and that Abby went with him.

"Well, it's not like we're engaged..." Connor muttered, when a memory hit. "Crap. I _have_ proposed – well, I suggested a proposal – and, I seem to have forgotten in all the new excitement about it... I'm an idiot..."

It was at that moment that Connor's phone began to ring.

"Danny, hi!" Sarah said, almost breathlessly as she let her semi-boyfriend into the apartment. "What's up?"

"Sarah, we need to talk," Danny said in a decisive tone of voice, and then toned it down somewhat. "Please?"

"Sure," Sarah nodded slowly – last time Danny was in such a mood when Christine Johnson was still around and Jack Maitland had gone missing in a time anomaly. "About what?"

"The latest events," Danny confessed. "Sarah, you have any theories what is going on recently?"

"No... But why are you bothered by it?" Sarah asked back.

"Let's see... Lester's boss – that de Veux woman – may or may not be a nanotechnological cyborg from the future, but she's aiming to control us. Philip Burton seems to want a piece of the action for himself. Why?"

"Well, we are involved with the time anomalies?" Sarah suggested carefully.

"We – well, the Centre, technically speaking – have been involved with them for a while, so why now the sudden interest? And don't remind me of the stegosaurus – that incident may have justified the ministry, but not Burton."

"Helen has mentioned that Burton seems to be no big fan of the British government," Sarah said cautiously.

"Helen has a lot of opinions, but tends not to share them, unlike Nick, who also has a lot of them and tends to declare them loud and clear," Danny said wryly. "I'm reasonably sure that the two are interconnected, eh? Anyways, I came to brainstorm...but, since it's a nice day, you want to go out?"

"Excuse me?" Sarah blinked, "are you asking me out, like on a-"

"Yes," Danny interrupted, looking rather embarrassed. "For a coffee or whatever that you hinted at last time we've talked!"

"Oh, Danny, you charmer," Sarah said in a voice that was huskier than the usual, "of course I agree!"

The home of Matt and his father was rather like a country estate – a relatively well-to-do country estate, Abby noted thoughtfully. "It's rather green, is it not?"

"It is," Matt exhaled fondly. "Isn't it great?"

Abby looked at Helen. "The earth in his time... it's rather less green, for a change," Helen replied thoughtfully. "I think Mathew and Gideon are living their life to the fullest here – as they would've liked it back then – or is it the front, rather?"

It was then they came up to Gideon Anderson, who was reclining on a bench while served by a rather young, and pretty-looking, woman.

"And speaking of fronts, it seems that some things just don't change," Helen added in a much drier tone of voice that Abby was used to hear from her. "Hello again, Gideon."

To point it out Gideon barely batted an eye to her impromptu greeting. "Ah, Matt, Helen, hello! And who's your young friend?"

"That's my cousin, Abigail Maitland," Helen spoke, her voice still wry, "so please, no courting!"

"Indeed?" Gideon barely batted an eye again. "Indeed. There is some family resemblance after all. Nice to meet you, Miss Maitland."

"Um," Abby felt a blush coming on. "Hello!"

"Tone it down some," Helen exhaled as she sat down onto the bench as well. "I see that you have aged some, after all. Here," she reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle full of pills. "That should last you some."

"I don't want them," Gideon shook his head.

"Sorry to hear that," Helen shrugged back. "But have it anyways. I owe you for my abrupt departure. Do what you will with this."

"Helen," Gideon shook his head. "You haven't changed at all, have you?"

"You told me that if I didn't change, I'd eventually be dead," Helen said, wryly. "I like to think that I have changed, some. That said, I'm still as I was." She got up. "Oh, and by the way, your tasers? Might need another setting?"

"Oh, really?" for once Gideon looked quite serious and profession. "My tasers-"

"Father," Matt quickly intervened, "here's something that you need to know..."

As Matt began to tell his father about the giganotosaurus, Abby and Helen left quietly.

The neighbourhood where Duncan began to hang-out since Tom's death was depressing. Very depressing and very dissolute. Connor looked around despondently, emitted a deep sigh, and knocked on the door.

Duncan opened it not straightaway, but clearly taking his time, suspecting the worst (whatever it was). "Yes? Connor? It's you? How'd you find out about this place?"

"Your mum told me," Connor said, slowly. "Duncan, can I come in?"

After a brief internal struggle, Duncan complied.

The cafe was nice, the weather was nicer, and the robins sitting in the barely-green trees were clearly prophesising the arrival of spring. If it wasn't for some of the less pleasing (currently) aspects of Sarah and Danny's characters, Sarah, for one, would've probably completely forgotten about the reason why they were out... or maybe they did, or...

"So, you don't have any concrete evidence, no nothing?" Sarah said bemusedly to Danny, even as the two of them relaxed at the coffee table. "Just your suspicions?"

"In the long run – yes," Danny confessed. "And – I confess – I'm not quite sure what to do with them. I can't just let them go, or rather, I won't, but I can't just let them take me to nowhere."

"Well, right now they've taken you to me, and that is somewhere, rather than nowhere, wouldn't you think?" Sarah raised one of her eyebrows.

Danny blinked. "You're a frivolous mood today, aren't you?"

"What can I say?" Sarah shrugged. "Ever since the incident with the giant prehistoric rhinos – what did Connor call them? Never mind – we've been mostly dealing with the routine, and as the stegosaurus had shown, too much routine is bad. _This_ is," Sarah swept her arm to emphasize 'this' as their surroundings, "is better!"

Danny raised an eyebrow of his own. "Did the new girl give you this idea?" he asked neutrally.

"Not quite," Sarah admitted. "Yesterday, when we were helping Lorraine to get Lester and Burton to the medical wing, a realization hit me: Oh my Lord, this is the most excitement I have seen in weeks! Danny, this wasn't a nice realization, I want change, for once. Burton's arrival and the ministry re-starting to mess with us, and everything else – Danny, that's change. I like it."

"Sounds quite Zen. Did one of your lady friends tell it to you first?"

"No," Sarah spoke, somewhat stung, "I figured it out myself! What I'm saying is that I'll help you with your plans, but I'm going to be an optimist and continue to think that what will be happening will be for the better, not worse."

"I can live with that," Danny nodded easily. "You want to go somewhere and work some more on that optimism of yours?" He winked in a suggestive manner.

Sarah choked.

As Connor surveyed his friend's new digs, he liked them less and less. Come to think of it, he liked Duncan's current state of affairs less and less as well.

"So, Duncan, what's with the hat?" he finally decided to start the conversation as Duncan just scurried manically around. "It's rather warm for spring, don't you think?"

"That's what they want you to think!" Duncan cried back triumphantly.

"Them being?"

"The people behind the conspiracy! Every since time anomaly occurrence, every single time-displaced creature – I followed every lead and always came back blank!"

"Duncan," Connor exhaled, remembering the time when Helen appeared on the ITV for the first time, "there's no conspiracy – don't you watch ITV?"

"I don't believe them! The computer graphics today – you can put anything onto television, you know! No, I got something better – sightings of a man-eating creature at the docks! I will go there and I will capture it on video and reveal the truth to the world!" Duncan laughed shrilly.

Connor was barely able to hold twitching at this sight. The idea of a rather unstable Duncan going off to confront an unknown creature (possibly prehistoric or futuristic) by himself had 'disaster' written all over it.

"I'll come too," he said almost immediately.

"You will?" Duncan frowned, confused.

"Yup," Connor said confidently. "Lead on, my man, and let's see what sort of an animal we're dealing with!"

"So, that's Mr. Anderson," Abby muttered to feel the contemplative silence. "He makes Matt appear really wooden, doesn't he?"

"He's an old goat," Helen replied flatly. "You should've seen him when they were younger, he'd do more than pay compliments to you!"

"No thanks," Abby quickly replied. "I'm sure that he's... good, but Connor's the only man in my life..." she trailed away. "At least that's what I thought before Miss Jess and her oh so amazing legs have appeared on the scene!"

"You think that her legs are amazing?" Helen asked dryly. "Maybe Connor's the one who should be worried. And speaking of him," she continued as Abby sputtered protests against the unfair implication, "he and Jess Parker seem to have no interest in each other whatsoever; in fact I think I caught her looking at Becker when we returned after the Iguanodon incident."

"At Becker? Really?" Abby said, thoughtfully. "Think that we could do something with it?"

Helen just looked at her cousin. "What? Come on," Abby protested weakly, "can you see Becker being romantic, let along doing something along those lines? If Jess is to court him, she'll need help."

"Then maybe you should think about asking Sarah to help. Danny Quinn too, maybe," Helen suggested. "I mean, I know that you've considered what they've had going on as some sort of a personal soap opera, but really, isn't it time to put it to a rest?"

"...Maybe," Abby finally admitted, "or maybe I should do what you do - hang back and see what they'll do with a new character."

"...You're hopeless," Helen said after a pause of her own. That effect was spoiled by a slight grin, however.

"I know," Abby grinned back.

As Connor followed Duncan to the docks, he was hit more and more by the wrongness of this idea. Then again, this was _Duncan's_ idea, and in Connor's opinion, lately it seemed that everything connected with Duncan had a sense of wrongness in it.

Of course, the docks' atmosphere wasn't doing any wonders in lifting his mood either: they were gloomy, oppressive, and somewhere not far away the sea birds were crying-out about... something.

"So, Connor, what're you thinking about?" Duncan asked suddenly, startling Connor.

'About your ridiculous hat,' Connor wanted to reply, but suppressed the urge. "I'm not thinking about nothing in particular – I have smelled something."

And then he did smell the smell, yes indeed. The smell was sickly sweet, somewhat cloying, and Connor hadn't had smelled it since the times Leek's hideout had been destroyed with multiple casualties. "Duncan," Connor muttered as he slowly, reluctantly began to walk towards the direction from which the smell emanated, "we might've found your creature."

"What? Where?" Duncan eagerly raced to catch-up with Connor, and then-

Burton, Becker had to admit as he stood as his post, was quite good at the whole public relations angle, quite better than Lester. Of course, that was probably more of Lester's fault than Burton's achievement, but still-

"Yes?" he spoke-up quietly, aware that his comm.-link had suddenly sprung to life.

"Becker, it's me, Connor," came the desperate, rather frightened whisper on the other end. "Me – and my friend Duncan – am at the docks. There's a prehistoric reptile that is trying to eat us. Help!" The last word was echoed by a yelp.

"On it," Becker whispered quietly, and quickly walked over to Jess at her control centre for some assistance.

"...Sorry that I've taken my time," Matt explained to the two cousins as he finally joined them at the car. "Father was very interested in hearing how the G-Rex was able to shrug off the pulse so quickly."

"Of course he was," Helen said calmly. "He's a _good_ inventor, and he the idea of one of his inventions not being perfect just sits wrong in his stomach. Hopefully, he'll get better soon enough to start making an even better version."

An odd look came onto Matt's face, a look that Abby recognized had appeared from time to time on the face of Jack, whenever their parents had been mentioned earlier in their lives, but then... their comm.-links came to life.

"Matt's here," for once Matt Anderson's voice sounded less than fully professional as it usually did. "What's up?"

"There's a situation at the docks," Jess's voice sounded from the other end. "Connor has managed to find a prehistoric creature of some sort, and he's in trouble. Becker's on his way, but you-"

"Send us the directions to the GPS, and we'll be there as soon as we can," Matt promised.

Soon, they were on their way.

Connor was in trouble, and the trouble was largely because of that, of that, of his friend that was currently trying to kill, or at least hurt him despite the presence of the huge, semi-terrestrial, prehistoric crocodile that was doing its' damnedest best to kill them both.

"Duncan," Connor wheezed, trying not to hurt both Duncan and himself even as Duncan did his best to try and hurt him. "Stop this! You're my friend!"

"Not anymore!" Duncan huffed. "You're a part of the conspiracy! You're up to get me!"

"No, Duncan, I'm not!" Connor protested weakly. "In fact, there's no conspiracy, you're-"

It was at this moment that Duncan went slack, and as Connor raised his eyes heavenwards, he finally saw Becker, circling around the docks in a helicopter, complete with a news crew and video cameras.

To add an injury to an insult, before Connor could do anything but to grin weakly, the prehistoric reptile decided to make another lunge – after taking a good long run. Before it can reach Connor, however, there was a loud, zapping sound, a sharp burst of ozone, and it fell, stunned at the bottom of the pile of crates that Connor (and Duncan) had scaled in order to escape from it. Consequently, that pile now chose to collapse, taking Connor down with it. His humiliation was now caught on camera – and complete.

...When Connor returned to his senses, he was lying on a bunk in the ARC's hospital wing, and Danny Quinn was sitting protectively not far away from him. "You all right, mate?" the elder man said with genuine concern.

"Aside from feeling like a complete ass? Totally fine," Connor sighed. "I blew it, Danny. I forgot that I planned to re-propose to Abby as we have planned earlier at the Cutters' wedding, I have forgotten all about Duncan, I was appeared as an idiot on TV – I blew it, in short."

"Well, you had help, of sorts," Danny suggested. "The TV crew arrived there in an impromptu move of their own. They heard about your call for help and offered their news chopper for extra speed in exchange for exclusive footage."

"We need to relocate Helen or Jenny to exclusive detail regarding making deals with that woman," Connor grumbled. "They, somehow, can keep up with her; the rest of us? Are like fish bait to her snakehead."

"..Yes, you're probably right," Danny agreed after thinking over the metaphor, "and besides, me and Sarah – we've messed up. See, our communicators had been switched off completely, so we were unable to learn about your trouble in time-"

"No, that's okay," Connor said contritely, and then Abby walked in.

"Danny, can I switch over?" she asked, rather quietly.

"Sure, I'll give you two some space," Danny agreed immediately and left.

"Abby," Connor began, but the latter interrupted him.

"Shush. I need to tell you something first..."

Helen was sitting quietly in the ARC's animal wing and observed the pacing boar-croc. Grizzled, scarred, and permanently bad-tempered, the reptile resembled an ex WWF-champion, who was out, but not down. The broken main left tusk only deepened the similarity further.

"What are we to do with you?" Helen muttered to herself, even as she continued to sketch the imprisoned reptile, and was consequently slightly startled when she got a reply:

"Funny, that's exactly what _I_ was thinking, right after 'what the Hell has happened here'? Helen? Can you please explain?"

Helen put her pencil and sketchpad down and smiled almost as toothily as any crocodile. "Glad to see that you're back from your honeymoon, Jenny."

End.


	3. Chapter 3

**Kith and Kin III**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™._

Nick Cutter was at a slight loss. When he and Jenny had left the ARC on their honeymoon, neither of them could foresee that during their absence the Centre would get so transformed. Suddenly it was bigger, busier, but... not necessarily better.

"So, what do you think?" he asked Jenny even as she was approaching him after being briefed by Helen. "Can you make sense in madness?"

"Nick," Jenny looked wryly at her husband, "this isn't exactly madness, this is just what the ARC was gearing up to be, more or less, even as we were preparing to get wed. Claudia _did_ send me a notice...only I didn't think that it was important at that time..." she trailed away, catching Nick's look. "Not my best moment, hah?"

"No, not really," Nick agreed. "Well. Still, I guess that that's what Lester meant when he implied that we'd get back to work. Lord, but do I hate him sometimes!"

"We all do," Jenny agreed easily, not really willing to defend James Lester of all people at the moment, "but, nevertheless-"

"Professor, you're back," Abby appeared suddenly, causing Nick and Jenny to be startled. "And with Jenny! Hi! We've missed you!"

"Right back at you," Jenny nodded sagely. "Abby, can I ask you-"

"One second," Abby nodded, growing somewhat more serious. "Nick, professor Conroy would like to greet you, so if you would come to the labs-?"

"Conroy? Peter Conroy? An aged gentleman, speaks with a definite Irish accent?" Nick asked, curiously.

"That's him. Got a degree in physics too, has a son who's an astronomer, a grandson who's aiming to be in astrophysics," Abby nodded once more. "You know him?"

"Yes," Nick replied, thoughtfully. "I think I'll go and check up on him, too. Jenny, talk to you later." He turned, rather abruptly, and left.

Abby and Jenny exchanged wordless looks. "So, you want to be put up to date?" Abby finally suggested.

"No, Helen already did that," Jenny exhaled. "Let's go to my office, instead."

"Well, hello there, young Nick!" Peter Conroy said cheerfully as he led Nick into his lab. "How was the second honeymoon? Better than the first, eh?"

"Peter," Nick blinked, his mood deteriorating once again, "I really don't want to talk to _you_ about _that_."

"Point," Conroy confessed as he backed down. "I admit I never approved of too-early weddings, but I also admit that me and the dean's meddling in it afterwards was even worse." He paused. "Anyways, _can_ I ask your opinion about something else?"

"As long as it's not your family life, go ahead."

"Splendid! And no, it's not," Conroy admitted. "How are you with waves and their lengths?"

Nick briefly frowned in thought. "I'm guessing that you Connor about the time anomalies?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Peter nodded excitedly. "Admittedly, the technological side of your Centre has been a bit underfunded, but now that Philip Burton," here the older man grimaced slightly, "has taken up shop here, I'm sure that that is going to be resolved. Anyways, where was I? Oh, yes, the waves, and your young man."

"Connor," Nick began weakly – when Peter began to babble, it could be just a bit too much. "He's not mine-"

"Connor had a very detailed log for the last year – year and a half of where the time anomalies have appeared, and how his inventions have been able to seal them," Peter continued, riding over Nick, just as he tended to do. "He's got a good, practical mind, that Connor. Something that we need in the university, especially since Old Man Rivers has retired."

"The rector has retired?" Nick asked, incredulously.

"Well... he's going to. At the end of the year," Peter nodded solemnly. "I myself am probably going to do the same thing, soon. Still, while there's still some black powder left in this can, I might as well be useful, and when the superiors of your boss, Lester, offered me this chance to better the world, leave my mark on it, I accepted it." He smiled again, but nowhere as brightly as he used to, in Nick's memory. "Nick, listen, can I ask you for a favour?"

"I am guessing that it isn't a free dinner?" Nick replied, half-suspiciously and half-wryly.

"No, no, listen, it's about the time anomalies-"

As if on cue, the time anomalies' alarm sounded through the Centre.

When Nick came to the lobby, he was greeted by the ARC's new operations' centre, run by Jess Parker too. Seeing how Jenny was already talking to the younger woman with some enthusiasm (and it wasn't forced, either), Nick decided that this probably wasn't all bad.

"Hello, professor Cutter," Jess spoke up, carefully. "I and Mrs. Cutter were talking about you-"

"Please, call me Jenny," Jenny cut in, "I haven't fully grown into the whole Mrs. Cutter situation – not yet."

"Interesting." It was Becker's turn to startle everybody as he emerged from the corridor, trailed by Connor. "Where's the time anomaly located at, Jess?"

"In an abandoned theatre located alongside the 19th," Jess replied promptly, even as she carefully looked askance at Becker. "Uh, Lorraine said to tell Connor that the doctors are not ready to release him into the field yet."

"Now see here," Connor tried to puff with indignation, but suddenly had to grab the top of his head. "Ow!"

"Connor," Abby and Helen appeared behind the young man, and flanked him from both sides. "You still haven't had recovered from your misadventure with the prehistoric crocodile, and besides, Lester still has to talk to you about it."

"He has?" Connor gulped. "I'm off to the medical wing, then. Becker, you're in charge of the sealing device." And he was gone.

"Uh," Becker looked sheepishly at Nick, "about this and Connor-"

"I'll help you with it," Nick exhaled, feeling relatively happy for the first time since he returned to the ARC. "Besides, Conroy asked me to make some shots, as well..."

The ride to the theatre was more subdued than usual, but Becker, for once didn't mind too much about it – he liked it more quiet than noisy. When, however, the field team (and the security back-up) has entered the abandoned theatre, Becker's mood took a downwards turn. "I think that something's wrong," he muttered to the others, "seriously."

"How'd you know _that_?" Nick couldn't help but ask the younger man.

"My left eye is twitching," Becker replied, sourly. "It always does this when there's trouble in the air."

"You sure that it's not because of the dust?"

Becker looked around, twitching not only in his eye (or eyelid, if you wanted to be technical), but on a more general principle. The abandoned theatre hadn't been abandoned for too long, there were still plenty of props and furniture left lying around, the building's air was thick with dust and the smell of mothballs. Dead moths and other vermin too, in all likeness.

"Nick, just throw him a bone," Danny suggested as he appeared on Nick's right, even as Nick was standing to the right of Becker. "He's just trying to impress the new girl, I think."

"I do not," Becker snapped in a greater irritation than before. "I'm just – never mind. Cutter, did Temple's device detect the time anomaly yet?"

"Yes, it's straight in that direction," Nick nodded, as he looked down at Connor's detector. "We should be able to seal it without any problem-"

"Cutter?" Abby's voice sounded shaken and insecure over the comm.-link. "I found a corpse, and it's a human."

Lately, Emily Merchant was not having a very good run: first she, very ill Charlotte, and Ethan Dombrowski became separate from the rest of their group due to a dinosaur stampede, then Charlotte died and Ethan was at large – and Emily wasn't sure that she'll be able to handle them. Of course, she wasn't sure of a lot of things lately, but this, this was possibly her lowest point yet.

And then, then things suddenly seemed to change: the path to and through the time anomaly was blocked off any people (who have gone off to see the corpse of poor Charlotte), and she was clear to go.

There was a sudden, quiet noise behind her – Ethan maybe? Unwilling to confront Ethan right now, in a land that was probably hostile to them both (in which case Ethan would be right at home, seeing how he was getting more hostile by the day), Emily – very reluctantly – decided to go through the time anomaly.

Unseen by her, Matt Anderson followed.

"She was lying here when we entered," Abby explained helpfully, "covered by some rags and carpets – that's why we didn't notice her before. Danny?"

"Sorry," the ex-detective-constable confessed. "It's just that it's been a while since I saw a human corpse. I may be no TV hero, able to identify the cause of death in a matter of glances, but here... I think I'll bet that she died from natural causes."

"Maybe," Nick confessed, unwilling to counter the other man's suggestions, "but that's not so important right now. Jess? Is it her name? Jess!" he tapped his comm.-link a couple of times and frowned. "The comm.-link's on the fritz. Is it supposed to happen?"

"Aren't we missing somebody instead?" Becker realized suddenly. "Where're Matt and Helen?"

The land, Matt realized was grey, and somehow dead, dying. Almost like the future, but less intense all the same, for there were still trees, and grasses, and other features of landscape that was rather devoid of time anomalies, save for the one he had entered this world.

And so had the woman walking before him. Matt, admittedly, didn't have too much experience with time travelling, but the general idea that anyone comfortable with it shouldn't be running so freely around have become firmly established in his mind. As a consequence, that's why he was following the strange woman around, really.

Abruptly, the woman stopped and whirled around, apparently aware that Matt has been following her all this time. "Why are you following me?"

It was then that the dinosaur attack. A long, snaky tail streaked down from the tree, wrapping around the woman's throat, hauling her upwards, causing her to drop her dagger in the promise. Fortunately, Matt right there beside her, stabbing the dinosaur's tail with the aforementioned dagger. The suddenness of this attack caused the dinosaur to release its grip both on the woman and tree branch it'd been holding to.

"Are you okay?" Matt whispered to Emily, even as the dinosaur began to rise. There was a thunking noise, and the biggest crossbow bolt Matt had ever seen hit the reptile in the back of its back, knocking it prone.

"Boys and girls," Helen appeared from behind the trees, wielding an appropriately big crossbow, "I'm sorry to cut the tour short, but we need to leave now. There's a really big dragon coming from the wings, see?"

At the mention of a dragon, the woman blanched. "Run?" Matt carefully asked the woman, who'd been his governess (let's put it thusly) for most of his childhood.

"Oh yeah."

"Okay, we've searched the theatre's first floor, and it's clear that neither Matt nor Helen are here," Becker was saying sourly, "and from Jess's prolonged silence it's obvious that something has gone wrong at the base. Let's either seal the time anomaly or send a robot through it to check if they're on the other side, alive, and-"

Before Abby could mention Connor, Becker and robots in a same sentence (with Connor absent it was up to her to pick up the slack, really), when aforementioned Helen, Matt and a strange woman came bursting out of the time anomaly in question, looking quite disturbed.

"Seal it now!" Helen all but snarled. Becker, who was quite eager to seal this time anomaly to begin with, complied straightaway.

"Now see here," Nick began indignantly, when the now-sealed time anomaly rippled a couple of times. "What has happened here?"

"Someone with a lot of power and electricity tried to come here," Helen shuddered. "Someone whom we didn't want, most assuredly."

"Speak for yourself," Nick opened his mouth to shoot back (even though his feeling of general mistrust towards Helen had decreased somewhat since their divorce, quite a bit of residue yet remained), when he paused. "And who's your friend?"

"This is... this is, I forgot her name," Helen said slowly. "But she and her crew of chronologically-misplaced misfits saved me once in the Ice Age when I got gored by a prehistoric boar, so I owe her a big one." She paused. "'Course, being saved from my least-favourite dragon of all that I ever met can be considered a big one as well."

"You've saved me before, when that big friend of yours tried to eat me," the other woman said quietly, "and you now my name, remember?" She blinked and took a look around her. "None of you are cannibals from New Zealand, are you?"

There was a general pause as everyone tried thought over this most non-standard question. "No," Abby finally replied, slowly, carefully. "None of us are, although Becker... where are you from, captain?"

"From London," Becker snapped. "Where you're from, Abby?"

"Norfolk, actually-"

"If we can take a break from leafing through the leaves of Old Moor's Almanac," Nick said sourly, "can we turn our attention to the other time travelling woman in our midst?"

"My name," 'the other time travelling woman' spoke before Helen could, "is Emily Merchant, and, honestly, I'm all out of ideas. Do what you will-"

"Emily, that's bull," Helen said firmly. "You're among friends, and seeing how Matt isn't objecting at all that you've been sitting in his lap for the last five minutes or so, I'm reckoning that he, at least, would like to be more than just that."

There was a momentary pause as every realized that Emily was indeed sitting at Matt's lap quite comfortably, and then Matt and Emily did spring to their feet, each one trying to out-blush the other. Abby managed to somewhat stifle her giggles; Danny and Becker didn't bother.

The loud hooting that came from the upper reaches of the abandoned theatre managed to sombre the mood once more, however. "Any ideas as to what these things can be?"

Emily looked at Matt, Matt looked at Helen. "Dinosaurs," Helen said, less than happy to be in the centre of attention for once. "Kind of like the microraptors you've been mentioning to me, once, only bigger and less feathery."

"I can work with that," Nick nodded. "Helen, if you're so comfortable with our guest, why don't you take her to the hospital to see if she's all right."

"Sure," Helen said, her face once more more-or-less impassive. "Matt, can you please come with us in case some of the dinosaurs got out of the theatre or something? Please?"

Matt made some sort of a strangled noise and complied.

"...Just how does she do it?" Nick muttered mostly to himself as the trio left. "Seriously?"

"I don't know, but let's go dinosaur-hunting," Danny shrugged back. "So, even if these aren't the microraptors, think we can use them as a starting point?"

"The microraptors are theorized to have lived high in trees and glided like flying squirrels rather than soared as birds or bats," Nick said thoughtfully. "If this species is less feathered than the microraptors, but can still climb, then it probably hunts by pouncing from above, like the modern big cats do."

"So tell your men to keep their eyes and guns trailed upwards," Danny suggested, "and to keep an eye on the corpse – maybe the tree raptor, or the tree creeper, or whatever its' name is will decide to snack on that first-"

There was an abruptly cut-off strangled yelp and the sound of a dropped taser hitting the stage.

"Or not," Becker shot back, even as he an Abby raced for the stage.

"So, how did you two meet?" Emily said with uncertainty as the trio made their way outside. "Not that it's my place to ask or anything, but-"

"Matt's father saved me, and I always repay my debts," Helen said rather curtly. "In this case I ended up being a governess to young Mathew here for quite a while."

"_Young_ Mathew?" Emily repeated and the other woman another look. "Just how old are you, really?"

"Old," Helen's grin wasn't very mirthful. "But very well preserved, tanned and weathered all the same, too."

"And she's still younger than my father, too," Matt couldn't help but add. Judging from the glare Helen gave him, it probably wasn't his best thing to say.

"Your father?" Emily Merchant echoed. "What about-"

A loud hooting cry that came from the rooftops prevented Emily from continuing this question. "Well, there _is_ another one of these buggers out here," Helen sighed. "Matt, can you shoot it down?"

"That is impossible!" Nick Cutter rasped as he stared upwards at the hooting, arboreal dinosaur. "Helen... she said that it was large and lacked feathers, but this – is ridiculous!"

Danny and Becker exchanged looks. "I give you that the raptor samples our labs have are more feathered, but this one-"

"This one appears to have as much to do with our samples – which are either deinonychus or dromeosaurus – that we have with the spider monkeys of America!"

"Professor," Becker carefully spoke, even Nick prepared to fire off another shot, "you don't really want to bring down the theatre's foyer, now do you?"

"I'm firing tranquilizer darts," Nick ground out. "How can you bring down a theatre's foyer with tranquilizer darts?"

"Well," Becker said, too thoughtful for Danny's tastes, "if you ask me-"

Abruptly, from the outside came a large thump, as if something big had fallen from a big height. The dinosaur (or not-dinosaur, according to Cutter) stiffened and leaped in that direction... only to have Abby shoot it down from her vantage point. Consequently, the reptile missed its grip and fell down hard, with a thump.

"Um, I think a fall from this height has killed it," Danny said thoughtfully.

"Really? That makes two for the count," Helen unexpectedly replied, followed by Emily and Matt, who was dragging the other dead dinosaur into the theatre.

"Matt is a great shot!" Emily said, sounding rather impressed (even if she was trying not to). "He brought it down from such a height!"

"I just used the fact that electricity conducts metal," Matt said, looking rather embarrassed (for him, anyways). "That's how I was able to reach it even though it was out of reach of the taser, I mean the-"

"Yes, yes, we got it," Becker said in his trademark grouchy manner. "Now quit showing-off to your new girlfriend and help us get them back to the base-"

"Yes, where Jess is waiting to be suitably impressed by your feats of action and co-ordination," Abby said, as she came down and joined the others, "we understood that already."

Becker glared, but before he could reply, the field team's comm.-links came to life for the first time today.

"I'm sorry, were you talking about me?" Jess's voice sounded less secure than usual. "I didn't catch it."

"Yeah – we were just going back to the Centre," Abby replied before anyone else could. "What's happening there? You were out all this time!"

"It's, well, Lorraine would like you back now," Jess said slowly. "She wants you to help her discipline Connor."

"Connor?" Abby repeated incredulously. "Not Jack?"

"Not this time, no."

Abby broke the communications with Jess and looked at others. "People, I think we've got to go."

When the group arrived at the ARC, whatever had happened was over, however, and only Lester's trademark character kept things from appearing that they were the same as usual.

"What the deuce has happened here?" he demanded. "I took Ms. Lewis – sorry, I mean Mrs. Cutter the second – ow!"

"You ever invoke me as Mrs. Cutter the second ever again," Jenny said conversationally, "And I'll ask Helen-"

"To have one of my clone army make-out with him where the ITV can see them?" Helen suggested genially. "I'm guessing that you weren't here much today either?"

"No, for the last 2-3 hours we were at the negotiating table with the ITV that you've mentioned," Jenny admitted, "so we've missed the excitement. How was your day – Nick? And who's the new woman?"

"That's Emily," Matt said quickly. "She's with me. Um, I'm Matt Anderson, Mrs. Cutter. Hopefully Mr. Lester has told you about me earlier?"

Jenny paused and looked askance at Lester. "Not really. But nice to meet you all the same, Mr. Anderson, Mrs. Anderson."

As Matt and Emily alternated between red and white, Danny took pity on them and Jenny. "Um, we've met Emily only today. Lester, it seems, hasn't been telling you anything, eh?"

It was Jenny's turn to be mortified. "No, he has not," she confessed.

When the team finally came inside, already in disarray, they were greeted by an embarrassed Jess, an even more mortified Connor, and rather tall, dignified gentleman, animatedly talking to professor Conroy. "Ah, Mathew, my lad," Gideon said cheerfully. "How was your day? Better than mine, I hope: I came to talk with Mr. Burton about the weaponry, met professor Conroy here, started to talk – and Mr. Temple caused the entire building to be in a shut-down mode, almost killing us all."

There was a pause as everyone stared at Connor. "What?" Connor said weakly. "I did have a password built-in for just such an emergency."

"Which you've caused!" Abby snapped sharply. "Damn it, Connor, we were worried about you all day! How could you do this?"

"I'm sorry?" Connor said weakly.

"Ah, young love," Gideon said wistfully, "I remember when I was this age. Come to think of it, Matt, I remember when you were this age...which wasn't that long ago, admittedly. But come, I want to talk about the calibration on the weaponry and some other ideas that I've come up with in the meantime..."

As Matt and Gideon left, impromtly following Abby and Connor, Helen took turned to Emily. "Come on, let's get you settled down." The two women left, followed by Nick and Becker who went to the scientists' wing – Nick to examine the reptilian corpses, Becker to give professor Conroy his photos, leaving Danny and Jenny all by themselves... well, also with Jess.

"So, Jenny," Danny said suddenly. "Care to join the conspiracy run by me and Jess to discover why Burton _and_ Lester's superiors became so interested in our ARC all of a sudden?"

"Can I join too?" Jess asked curiously. "I've never been a part of a real conspiracy before."

"Sure, why not," Sarah replied – as she joined the operations' center with a pair of Styrofoam cups of coffee – before Danny could. "Well, Jenny, what do you say?"

"Why not," Jenny agreed. "I'm in."

And so ended yet another day at the ARC.

End


End file.
